[Blade55440]

One thing my instructor told me about hot pan and oil is that when your pan is hot, you tend to use less oil (the same amount tends to cover more when it's hotter, than when trying to coat a cold pan).

Granted she went on the same "it'll stick" shpiel... but doesn't everybody get that one?

[kuan]

Maybe if you get the pan hot enough the oil will polymerize on contact and create a sorta non-stick surface.

Hmmm...

[chrose]

Originally Posted by kuan

Maybe if you get the pan hot enough the oil will polymerize on contact and create a sorta non-stick surface.

Hmmm...

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahh Kuan....always thinking! You little scientist you

[CACook]

I don't know any of the science for it, but the reason I preheat is to save a little time. You can set the pan on the range and get it going, go and grab your stuff, then by the time you get back to add your oil it'll heat up much quicker than starting from both being cold. If you let it heat up with the oil in it and it starts smoking before you get back, you've just wasted oil.

[Brittany]

When I worked as saucer at a super busy restaurant, during the really crazy times, I would continually place pans in the bottom of the oven so that they were already smoking hot and it would take two seconds to get the oil sizzling hot. I miss those days. Always out thinking time, being a step ahead of the customers, being a step ahead of the chef.
Anyways. Something I have been taught is that olive oil is not heated in a cold pan because you do not want it to reach smoking point. It will tastes bitter due to all the plant partlicles in the oil (cold pressed, xtra virgin). So my chef would have me heat up the pan, when the pan was smoking, I would then add the oil and proceed to cook when i could smell the olive oil. Which was pretty much right away. I would also season all my pans with that chef because he used oil as a flavor and not just a cooking method, thus, sometimes you were limited on how much oil you could cook with.